January 24, 2010

The traditional designated hitter is fading from the American League. Guillen looks at the landscape and sees Travis Hafner in Cleveland, David Ortiz in Boston and nobody else really making it a full-time job.

“You’re not gonna see (another) Harold Baines,” Guillen said. “You’re not gonna see the Dave Parkers. You’re not gonna see the Big Papis (anymore).”

What is Ozzie talking about? If he’s eager to trot out a DH-less lineup all he has to do is look at the results of interleague play to see what happens when a team with a DH plays a team without one. And don’t forget this gem: “We are not a home-run team anymore.”

Ozzie Guillen on his World Series infield with Tadahito Iguchi and Juan Uribe: “You should have heard the conversations on the mound. We never knew what they were saying. Iguchi doesn’t speak any English, and Uribe doesn’t speak anything anyone can understand.”

Whenever he was asked about Thome returning to the South Side and joining the DH-by-committee mix by fans in that Saturday session, Williams dropped the final decision on Guillen’s shoulders. Nothing new, considering he’s recently also put the decision to have the entire coaching staff back, giving Freddy Garcia a second chance last year, and going after Juan Pierre – despite one of Williams’ baseball people insisting that Pierre’s game didn’t translate to the American League – on Guillen, as well.

… In the pass/fail world of Williams, he’s either reached the point in his career where he can comfortably delegate power or he’s putting together an exit strategy for his skipper in which his fingerprints would be almost non-existent.

”With all the problems we’ve had over there, and whether those problems were the result of those problems are something that didn’t enable us to get the players we need to get, or whether we just aren’t doing a good job over there, we need to get better at,” scouting director Doug Laumann said Sunday morning.

”We’re going to make a commitment for a little bit of time to add some resources, some manpower and get it better over there.”

”We definitely need to get more production out of the Dominican,” Laumann said. ”We need to tap that resource more than we had.”

Ozzie: “mark buehrle deserves to be our no. 1 guy.” will be reviewed in spring training. [Gordon] Beckham in the batting order: Probably 2nd, but if not, 5th, 6th or 7th. Juan Pierre would love to be able to hit homers. Doug Laumann: Sox will “probably focus on pitching” in the next draft. Rick Hahn: Worldwide draft could be coming soon. Laumann: Tyler Flowers will be a “real solid big league player.”

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said Sunday morning that no decision has been made on whether Jim Thome will return.

… Guillen emphasized the Sox’s decision would be made with their brains, rather than their heart. General manager Ken Williams made it clear Saturday that he was leaving it to Guillen to decide whether Thome would be a good fit for the 2010 Sox team.

… Guillen, who has said he wants to decide before he leaves town, added that his flight to Miami was moved from 4 p.m. Sunday to Monday.

“Maybe what I have is not convenient for him. But I’m leaving tomorrow. I want to get that out of my mind and go to Venezuela and enjoy my life and not leave you guys hanging here. I don’t want Thome to be waiting for my decision or my phone call.”

… “As long as I’m here, and I don’t care who it is, nobody will be a full-time DH,” Guillen said. “If I want one guy out there, I want [Thome]. I already talked to [GM Kenny Williams] about that.”

… “We’ll talk to Jimmy, and if he says yes, he accepts the role, then we will make our decision,” Guillen said. “I don’t want a DH just to be a DH. I want a guy to help me in different ways, and I want to hear all the opinions to make the right decision.”